This summer my research collided with one of my favorite TV shows, The Bear, in which talented, sexy, and emotionally tortured chef Carmy returns home to Chicago to run a sandwich shop with his family and (eventually) chosen-family staff. In the much watched and highly rated second season this June, the team closes the shop,… Read more →
The Alabama Senate recently passed a bill that expands Safe Haven Laws, which permit the surrender of newborns at designated sites like fire stations and hospitals, to allow the use of “baby boxes” across the state. Supporters argue that these “baby boxes,” which look like mail slots equipped with cushions and alarms inside, offer safer… Read more →
“Tujhe dekh ke goriye, Beyonce sharma jaayegi” – Your beauty, o fair skinned girl, puts even Beyonce to shame. Such were the lyrics to a 2020 Bollywood song, as the Economic Times explained, before popular backlash brought about a re-writing of the lyrics. The director and actors initially attempted to justify their intentions, claiming the… Read more →
What started as a straightforward reference question at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) provoked an unmistakable volley in the culture wars – and as I fled from the battlefield via the Archives shuttle, the first woman appointed as Archivist of the United States (AOTUS) saved the day. The first full week of summer… Read more →
In the years before Roe v. Wade, and in a context of severe stigma of out-of-wedlock pregnancies, maternity homes in the United States housed residents who, upon giving birth, often relinquished their children for adoption. One consequence of the legalization of abortion in 1973 was that fewer American women and girls were “sent away” to… Read more →
In January 2022, my Instagram feed was flooded with posts mourning Aubrion Rogers, a 30-year-old Black woman who died after her endometriosis went untreated for years. When she was rushed to emergency surgery, doctors removed a burst right ovary, appendix, endometriosis, and fibroids. In 2021, she shared on Facebook: “At what point will my situation… Read more →
Recently, literary scholars have demonstrated how the works of William Shakespeare can serve as a fantastic tool for teaching and analyzing social justice: his plays offer significant commentary on many categories of marginalized personal identity, including gender, sexuality, and race. I am a disabled scholar and teacher of Shakespeare, so I’m interested in the depiction… Read more →
In the fall of 1918, seven young people were photographed wearing masks lined up near a railroad track in Mill Valley, California. One woman wore a sign around her neck: “Wear a Mask or Go To Jail.” The catalog record associated with the photograph lists the date, November 3, 1918, the photographer, Raymond Coyne, the… Read more →